1. The Best Leadership Through
Mentoring And Coaching
By David KigerImage courtesy of startupstockphotos.com at Flickr.com

2. Effective leaders are something every single organization needs in
order to make all of its resources work together and succeed.
Leaders are invaluable tools, necessary to guide strategies in
specific directions and to motivate employees to dedicate
themselves to organizational goals. Here at David Kiger’s blog, you
can find excellent examples of great leadership being
implemented, as well as invaluable lessons on what being a leader
on this day and age means.
It is important to understand that leaders today have to deal with
different issues than those who came before them. Today’s
modern always-changing world evolves at an exhilarating pace
leaving behind those who do not adapt well to transformation.
Leadership today requires, more than ever, a more personalized
approach to motivating a workforce that has grown intelligent,
capable and highly efficient to answer the call of this ever-
changing business environment.

3. Coaching and mentoring are great tools to answer the call of a
new and more demanding business world, because they help
employees grow and refine their skills while at the same time
advancing the organization towards meeting its goals. This
approach benefits both the organization, as well as everyone
involved in this exciting leadership process.
What is coaching?
Coaching is a leadership tool geared towards helping an individual
develop their personal and professional skills towards reaching
specific set goals. Coaching is meant to promote the creativity,
skills and resources within an individual and help them overcome
challenges. A coach is supposed to be someone who is
trustworthy and able to help others overcome personal barriers
and release their true potential.

4. Coaching can improve self-confidence and self-awareness on those who
are located on both ends of the coaching spectrum. They can also greatly
improve interpersonal relationships and build better communication
skills as well as emotional intelligence.
One of the great things about coaching is that the programs can be
implemented not only with an external professional coach that works
outside of the organization, but also with an internal coaching partner
that has been specially trained within the company. Both of these offer
great advantages such as the professionalism and experienced coaching
skill set an outsider may be able to offer; versus the familiarity and
understanding of company policies, goals and projection than an internal
coach can bring to the table.
The bottom line is that coaching programs have a tendency to have a
short-term goal approach, are great for specific skill development and
work amazingly to help high-potential individuals with different stages of
their career progression.

5. What is mentoring?
Mentoring is often used as a complementary method along with
coaching in leadership development programs and in everyday
operations in companies that value promoting quality leadership
skills amongst their employees. Mentoring is defined as the
relationship between two individuals based on a shared desire to
improve themselves and their development towards career goals.
In mentoring there is a non-reporting relationship between the
mentor and the mentee, this allows them to focus more on the
relationship itself than in specific goals.
A mentor can provide an individual a way of finding better-defined
career goals and life choices in general, seeing different
perspectives and cultural values as well as access to new
resources and a way of having new networks of contacts.

6. One great thing about a mentoring program is that it benefits not
only both individuals participating, but also helps the business
greatly by helping it gain better staff retention, being able to
provide employees with greater knowledge of the organization
and its goals and improving communication and productivity
within the company.
Mentoring differs from coaching mainly in the sense that is more
focused on career and personal development instead of
development and work issues, the relationship between both
parties involved can last a lifetime instead of looking for short-
term results only and that the agenda is set by the mentee instead
of focused on the accomplishment of specific goals.

7. How can this help your company?
Leadership programs that include mentoring and coaching are
able to provide a better environment of adjustment to those
young professionals not yet used organizational practices and
therefore greatly benefit company culture. Mentors and coaches
are great ways to welcome new members to the team as well as
someone who they can turn to in case they have questions or
doubts.
Employee growth and development are other areas that are
positively affected by these leadership tools, because they provide
participants with useful knowledge that helps bridge that gap
between training theory and real-world business practices. Not
only that, but coaches and mentors also get a chance to truly
hone their leadership skills while helping the organization.

8. Company morale is raised significantly when members of the
business see these programs in place and understand that the
organization cares about their growth and about providing a
supportive atmosphere that promotes loyalty and boosts
productivity.